


Life's Severest Confidence

by Meddalarksen



Series: 30 AU Challenge - Natasha [11]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Orphanage, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-20
Updated: 2017-10-20
Packaged: 2019-01-20 04:27:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 677
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12425004
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Meddalarksen/pseuds/Meddalarksen
Summary: Natasha can create things no one else can see. Clint believes in everything she creates. The problem is, so does the doctor who comes to the orphanage. He also believes that gravity doesn't behave quite right around Clint.





	Life's Severest Confidence

**Author's Note:**

> Congratulations to you if you spot the X-Men reference

Natasha bit her lip, looking around the hall of the orphanage. She’d been listening again and knew that Dr. Essex was supposed to be coming later that day and she didn’t want to be around when he was. There was something about how he looked at the kids, like they were all clocks and he wanted to take them apart and see how they ticked.

He paid special attention to the ones that the people who ran the home mentioned had something __different__  about them. She wasn’t sure exactly what sort of different he was looking for since he hadn’t adopted anyone yet. But he kept coming around and she didn’t trust that. There was a little closet that had a door that sometimes stuck, it was a perfect hiding place because if they couldn’t get it open they assumed it was the weather or the house or something.

She was almost there when she heard a quiet “psst” from the stairs that led down to the boys’ floors. She turned to look and paused when she saw Clint there. He darted a glance up and down the hall before he looked back at her, “What are you doing?”

“Dr. Essex is coming soon,” she answered.

His eyes widened a little bit and he looked nervous now, “They’ll know if you hide.”

“They’ll know if you do too,” she said. “We can’t both be missing.”

Clint nodded, “I missed last time. You hide, I’ll come find you when he leaves.”

Natasha was tempted, but she knew that Clint had started showing signs of being different too and she couldn’t leave him alone. Even if what she wanted to do was hide in the closet and build a small dresser to block the door shut until Dr. Essex left, “No. We’ll both go today. Then we can hide next time.”

Clint hesitated, tugging once at his pant legs that were just a little too short after his last growth spurt, “Okay. I’ll see you down there when he comes.”

Natasha nodded and watched as Clint hurried back down to his floor.

Hours later, after Dr. Essex left again with a promise to return in the next couple of days, after dinner and everyone turning in for the night, Natasha snuck quietly out of her bed and down the stairs to the room Clint shared with another half-dozen boys. She eased the door open and blinked when she almost ran into Clint creeping out of the room.

He placed a finger to his lips and pointed down the hall to where the bathroom was. They made their way quietly to the room, stepping over the boards that creaked and not saying anything until they were closed inside, Natasha perched on the edge of the bathtub and Clint sitting on the closed toilet.

“What are we going to do?” He asked.

“Well, I’m not going with him,” Natasha said.

“He’ll be back tomorrow or the next day and that’ll be it, though,” Clint said.

“You’ve got family, they can’t just send you away.”

Clint snorted, “What family? My old man’s a drunk and my brother’s long gone. No, we’re both going to go with him and who knows what that’ll be.”

Natasha frowned, “So we leave.”

Clint paused and then a slow smile spread across his face, “You think we could do it?”

Natasha offered him a look and then carefully mimed the growth of a little tree, twisting the glistening red apple she could picture on it off and holding it in her hand before offering it to Clint. He didn’t hesitate to reach out and close his hand around what most people would think was nothing. “I think we could do it.”

He bit into the apple and closed his eyes as she mimed the tree falling over and advanced it through to disappearing, “Then what are we waiting for?”

Natasha smiled, “I have to go get my clothes, get dressed. I’ll meet you at your window in fifteen minutes.”

Clint opened his eyes and grinned, “Let’s go.”


End file.
